Bevelling Steel Pieces for Welding

[Tractor Seabee]

I have a project with many pieces of 1/4" thick -1/2" thick that will be butt and fillet welded. Normally I just use the 4 1/2" amd or/ 9" angle grinders to create the bevel. Creates a lot of fine dust and sparks. Is there a better process you guys use? I have a drill press with a milling vise so thought that might lend itself to doing the task more efficiently and have chips instead of dust and sparks that start fires. I am not a machinist by any stretch although I have use end mills in the DP for milling grooves. Back in my pipefitter days some fab shops had a machine with a lathe bi for bevelling pipe, that was slick but expensive.

Bring on any ideas you have.

Ron

 

[CalG]

The side grinder needs no cutting lubricant, and so no solvent clean up.

Take the work to some location where sparks and dust are not an issue.

The only process better is "cutting/ gouging" with flame, plasma etc.

Gouging - Processes > Cutting & Welding > Related processes | AGA Region Europe North

 

[Sodo]

I've never heard of efficient ways to bevel but a 9" grinder would be pretty fast. Hose down the work area first.

Bevel larger parts before cutting?

With a carbide saw make a long sawcut kerf halfway thru material near the edge then grind the bevel. Or several passes/kerfs.

Yes would be nice to have some tricks up your sleeve, I'll be watching

 

[4570Man]

I have a real milling machine, and would probably do it that way. A large shear might be able to do it. I have a big 20" abrasive saw, but the mill would probably be faster.

 

[rswyan]

Angle cuts on the bandsaw here for the thicker pieces, get a snagging wheel if you're going to use a grinder ... it will go a lot faster.

 

[dstig1]

First off, what constitutes "many pieces"? Roughly. Do you mean 10's? 100's? 1000's? That can make a big difference on what people may suggest....

Milling might work well, but fixturing could take time, especially if the parts vary a lot. A bandsaw that allows an accurate bevel cut would be sweet (one and done), if you have that. How good are you with a torch or plasma? You could possibly set up a fixture to help you with a consistent angle (like a track torch). You could even shop them out, if you can find someone who can do them fast and cheap, perhaps.

If you end up with the grinder method, I can highly recommend the 3M Cubitron II paper on the 9" grinder with a hard backer plate. This stuff is unreal how fast it eats metal. My disclosure: I have a friend who makes and tests the stuff at 3M and he gave me some to try out. I am quite serious when I say it is unreal. When I first tried it, I could not believe how much faster it was cutting than the regular stuff I was using just a minute prior. A top notch abrasive can cut a job down by orders of magnitude. So a grinder might be the easy route with the good stuff, unless you are talking hundreds or thousands of parts. Especially for a one-off job. I have never seen anything like this stuff in abrasives. <shill mode off>

 

[Shield Arc]

Ron you're more than welcome to come over and use my Ellis saw, tractor torch, or Mill.

 

[Baby Grand]

If I had to do that, I'd go old-school (& cheap) with the oxy-ac torch:

Plasma would probably work nicely with this set-up, too.
A little clean-up with the angle grinder, after flame cutting, is to be expected.
But taking the bulk of the material off with the torch will save you hours of noisy, dirty work and a pile of wheels.

 

[Mysfyt]

First off, what constitutes "many pieces"? Roughly. Do you mean 10's? 100's? 1000's? That can make a big difference on what people may suggest....

Milling might work well, but fixturing could take time, especially if the parts vary a lot. A bandsaw that allows an accurate bevel cut would be sweet (one and done), if you have that. How good are you with a torch or plasma? You could possibly set up a fixture to help you with a consistent angle (like a track
torch). You could even shop them out, if you can find someone who can do them fast and cheap,
perhaps.



If you end up with the grinder method, I can highly recommend the 3M Cubitron II paper on the 9" grinder with a hard backer plate. This stuff is unreal how fast it eats metal. My disclosure: I have a friend who makes and tests the stuff at 3M and he gave me some to try out. I am quite serious when I say it is unreal. When I first tried it, I could not believe how much faster it was cutting than the regular stuff I was using just a minute prior. A top notch abrasive can cut a job down by orders of magnitude. So a grinder might be the easy route with the good stuff, unless you are talking hundreds or thousands of parts. Especially for a one-off job. I have never seen anything like this stuff in abrasives. <shill mode off>

Not all abrasives work the same. 3M stuff is always top of the line. I'd rather spend a few extra bucks on a good (fast!) abrasive set up than than stand there all day killings my hands. Grinding is a PIA, but if your gonna weld, your gonna grind. Even if you bevel with a track torch or plasma, you're still going to have to clean the edge with a grinder B4 welding.

 

[k0ua]

If the parts are small enough, I use my bandsaw to cut the bevel.